1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally related to the field of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) network, and more particularly, to streaming multimedia content in a Wi-Fi Display network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) Display (WFD) standard has been newly defined based on a requirement to transmit audio/video (AV) data while high quality and low latency are satisfied. A WFD network is a network system suggested by the Wi-Fi Alliance® that enables Wi-Fi devices to be connected to each other in a peer-to-peer fashion without participating in a home network, an office network, or a hot-spot network. Wi-Fi devices within a WFD network may be capable of discovering information regarding each other (e.g., capability information), establishing a WFD session, and rendering content received during the WFD session. Typically, a WFD network comprises a Wi-Fi source device and one or more Wi-Fi sink devices.
A Wi-Fi source device acts as a multi-media content provider device. A primary Wi-Fi sink device is capable of rendering both audio and video streams, whereas a secondary Wi-Fi sink device can render an audio stream. In order to stream multi-media content, the Wi-Fi source device discovers WFD sink devices (e.g., primary Wi-Fi sink device and secondary Wi-Fi sink device). Then, the Wi-Fi source device performs service discovery with the WFD sink devices to determine the type of services desired to be availed at the WFD sink devices. Thereafter, the Wi-Fi source device establishes a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) connection with one or more of the discovered Wi-Fi sink devices.
The Wi-Fi source device sends a WFD capability request frame to the Wi-Fi sink devices over the TCP connection. In response, the Wi-Fi sink devices send a WFD capability response frame. The WFD capability response frame contains capability information and audio and video intent value associated with the respective WFD sink device. Accordingly, capability information is exchanged and negotiated between the Wi-Fi source device and each of the Wi-Fi sink devices over the TCP connection. For example, capability information exchanged and negotiated between the WFD source device and each of the WFD sink devices includes audio/video parameters such as audio/video codecs, resolutions, frames per second, time synchronization parameters, and so on. Then, the Wi-Fi source device establishes a WFD session with the multiple WFD sink devices. Furthermore, the Wi-Fi source device streams multimedia content to the multiple WFD sink devices during the WFD session.
After terminating a WFD session, the TCP connection between the Wi-Fi source device and the multiple Wi-Fi sink devices is terminated. In such a case, a new TCP connection has to be established between the Wi-Fi source device and the multiple Wi-Fi sink devices for every session. It is also possible that some other applications would have already started a TCP connection but may not use the TCP connection. However, setting up a new TCP connection adds to latency in streaming multimedia content. Upon availability of the TCP connection, capability exchange and negotiation is performed prior to establishing a WFD session, thereby introducing additional latency in establishing the WFD session.